Slice of pie for building is shrinking by the day

WHEN it was revealed Northern Territory ministers had been warned that less than half the promised 750 houses would be built under the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program, federal minister Jenny Macklin went on the attack.

"That report is completely wrong," she said on national radio the morning after the July 23 article in The Australian.

NT indigenous policy minister Alison Anderson didn't think so -- she was at the original candid briefing given by SIHIP program director Jim Davidson and the following day threatened to quit her government over the farce.

And now Davidson has confirmed the accuracy of the report, albeit insisting he never claimed that indirect costs under the SIHIP were going to run to 70 per cent of the program's budget.

During a month of political turmoil, there has been much obfuscation by both the federal and Northern Territory governments as to where exactly the SIHIP money is going.

Amid the confusion, The Australian sent reporters and photographers to the three Territory communities receiving housing under the first stage of the SIHIP to relate what was happening on the ground.

The reality was, not much. It is indisputable that the SIHIP has been slow to get started. Not one house has been built. But that is not the real concern. The real concern is that while Aboriginal people live 20 to a house and sit waiting -- and on disease-ridden Groote Eylandt die waiting -- the slice of the pie available for building is shrinking day by day.

It is a sad irony that while dirt-poor Aborigines have been waiting for new houses, Davidson has been putting the finishing touches to his lavish mansion overlooking the Nightcliff foreshore in Darwin.

I point this out not to begrudge the man his hard-earned wealth or his status. Davidson has a glittering CV and extensive experience in civil engineering. He was working hard on a program he passionately believed had the potential to change lives in remote communities. But there is something terribly wrong when just across the Arafura Sea from Davidson's home, a Tiwi Islander has his roof fall in on him while he is watching television with his children.